achievement gap

Examples of achievement gap in the following topics:

• Gender Bias in the Classroom

  • Gender-based achievement gaps suggest the existence of gender bias in the classroom.
  • Gender-based achievement gaps (especially in math and science) suggest the existence of gender bias in the classroom.
  • Although most people would like to believe gender bias in the classroom is no longer a problem, evidence points to a persistent achievement gap between boys and girls.
  • If test score gaps are evidence of gender bias, where does that gender bias come from?
  • Analyze both the possible root causes of gender-based achievement gaps and its proposed solutions

• Institutional Prejudice or Discrimination

  • The achievement gap in education is another example of institutionalized discrimination.
  • The achievement gap refers to the observed disparity in educational measures between the performance of groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

• Teachers' Expectations

  • Teachers' perception of students' knowledge and abilities influences classroom processes and student achievement.
  • How teachers perceive students' knowledge and abilities influences classroom processes and student achievement.
  • In other words, when teachers believe students will be high achievers, those students achieve more; conversely, when teachers believe students will be low achievers, those students tend to achieve less.
  • Teachers' expectations may also be gendered, perhaps explaining some of the gender achievement gap.
  • Therefore, these stereotypes can influence student achievement in these areas.

• Education and Liberty in the Developing World

  • In 2000, the United Nations signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which includes eight Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015 or 2020.
  • There has been great progress achieved since 1999 in the achievement of the millennium development goal.
  • However, despite all these important achievements, the world is currently not on course to achieve its target of universal primary education by 2015.
  • Moreover, it is estimated that there is a $16.2 billion annual external financing gap between available domestic resources and what is needed to achieve the basic education goals in low income countries.
  • This is due to current aid levels which address only 15% of that gap, resources often not provided to those countries who need it the most, and the amounts pledged not fully honored.

• Learning the Gender Gap

  • This implies that the gender gap stems from social, rather than biological, origins.
  • In order to determine whether the gender gap is a result of implicit or explicit discrimination, we can look at the adjusted and unadjusted wage gap.
  • The remaining part of the raw wage gap that cannot be explained by variables that are thought to influence pay is then referred to as the adjusted gender pay gap and may be explicitly discriminatory.
  • The total wage gap in the United States is 20.4 percent.
  • This PSA by the European Union illustrates the gender pay gap in Europe.

• Social and Psychological Differences

  • The gap between men's and women's wages narrowed during the 1980s and mid 1990s, but that momentum has fallen off and the distance now appears to have stagnated.
  • The gap in income between genders used to be similar between middle-class and affluent workers, but it is now widest among the most highly paid.
  • The narrowing of the gap in pay has also been called into question.While it appears there has been a narrowing of the gap in pay between men and women, Mulligan and Rubinstein show that much of the narrowing is actually the result of the most able women entering the workforce and not decreases in the pay gap between men and women.
  • Another possible explanation for the wage gap between men and women has recently been proposed - customer bias towards white males.
  • Women did eventually gain access to institutions of higher learning, but parity or equality on a number of levels has still not been achieved.

• Social Mobility in the U.S.

  • The American Dream is often associated with a series of novels written by Horatio Alger in the late 19th century, most of which told the story of a young person born to a lower class family who achieved higher status through hard work and virtue.
  • The sheer size of the income gap between the rich and poor, which makes it harder to climb the proverbial income ladder because the rungs are far apart

• Family and Gender Issues

  • Social expectations that women manage childcare contribute to the gender pay gap and other limitations in professional life for women.
  • In the United States, there is an observable gender pay gap, such that women are compensated at lower rates for equal work as men.
  • The gender pay gap is measured as the ratio of female to male median yearly earnings among full-time, year-round (FTYR) workers.
  • Economists who have investigated the gender pay gap have also noted that women are more likely to choose jobs based on factors other than pay.
  • Recall at least three reasons why there might be a gender pay gap

• The Psychological Perspective

  • Stereotype Threat is a potential contributing factor to long-standing racial and gender gaps in academic performance.
  • Repeated experiences of Stereotype Threat can lead to a vicious circle of diminished confidence, poor performance, and loss of interest in the relevant area of achievement.

• State-Centered Theories

  • Laissez-faire policy led to corporate monopolies and a vast gap between the wealth of capitalist business owners and wage laborers.
  • Socialism is an economic and political system in which the state owns the majority industry, but resources are allocated based on a combination of natural rights and individual achievements.